Yellow Pages owner to fold under debt

THE owner of Yellow Pages is set to hand control of the company to its
creditors this week after buckling under the weight of a £2.3bn debt pile.

A clutch of Wall Street hedge funds and banks will seize the loss-making
publisher after striking a complex agreement that will slash its borrowings
to less than £1bn.

The debt-for-equity deal will wipe out shareholders in the company, called
Hibu, which was a stalwart of the FTSE 100 until the financial crisis
erupted in 2008.

The phone books giant, which changed its name from Yell last year, was once
worth more than £5bn but is now valued at just £6.7m.

Hibu, which has 13,000 staff, is paying the price for a disastrous
acquisitions spree by its former chief executive during the credit boom of
the mid-2000s. John Condron borrowed heavily to fund an expensive overseas
takeover spree, which took Yell into the